Results tagged ‘ Jorge Posada ’

Yankees catcher Jorge Posada knows how brutal the American League East can be. With a heavily decorated 16-year career, Posada said the biggest task facing young Orioles backstop Matt Wieters is learning to make adjustments.

“It’s probably the toughest thing to learn,” Posada said. “When you are back there behind the plate, obviously your number one priority is the pitcher, the defense, and [Wieters is] doing a hell of a job. I think he needs to understand that.

And he’s going to hit. [But] He’s got to understand that his priority is behind the plate. He’s going through some tough adjustments at the plate. He cannot let it affect what he’s doing behind the plate, and he’s doing a great job, I don’t think it’s affecting him one bit. He looks great behind the plate.”

Wieters has struggled at the plate for most of the season, but he has been making an effort to shorten his swing and get on top of the ball. He said on Tuesday that he felt confident in his work in the batting cages with hitting coach Terry Crowley and he’s put together a nice pair of games, going 4-for-9 with a double and an RBI, in the first two games against the Yankees. “It’s a tougher time the second time around [the Major Leagues], the third, it’s just going to make him better,” Posada said. ” It’s going to make him a better player.”

While some have speculated that the 24-year-old Wieters might have been overhyped, Posada didn’t see it that way.

“No, the sky’s the limit,” Posada said of Wieters’ potential. “He’s going to be a good player. He looks strong, he looks good. And he’s going to be there for a while.”

Guthrie allowed a season-high seven runs (six earned) over a season-low 4 2/3 innings and said he was “embarrassed” by the outing in his postgame remarks, apologizing to teammates and fans on hand for the Orioles’ 8-3 loss to the Yankees.

On Thursday afternoon, the nameplate above Guthrie’s locker was gone as were most of his belongings, besides a few jerseys. Asked if he needed to remove some of the clutter, the right-hander agreed that was part of it.

“I think he really wanted to get one under his belt [Wednesday] night against the Yankees,” Trembley said of Guthrie prior to Thursday’s series finale. “It didn’t happen for him, and I think he was disappointed. He felt responsible for it, and I told him today that he shouldn’t feel that way. He’s a guy with a lot of pride. He works real hard. I think he expects himself to be perfect all of the time. When he’s not, he takes responsibility for that and it bothers him.”

Trembley said he was on hand to film a MASN commercial earlier this season and saw Guthrie getting his running in despite a torrential downpour.

“The guy just prepares himself. He works, he cares,” Trembley said. “He’s coming off a season that wasn’t up to his standards.”

Guthrie (0-3) is winless in five starts this year, but has improved his numbers considerably from last season. He had tossed four straight quality starts prior to Wednesday and -most importantly – limited opponents to just two homers. Robinson Cano tagged Guthrie for his third long ball of the season Wednesday. Guthrie led the American League in losses (17) and home runs allowed last season (35) and has made a conscious effort to revert back to his ’08 and ’07 self.

“Let me start by saying I’m embarrassed by the way the game started, I was embarrassed by the way the game finished,” Guthrie said following Wednesday’s loss in front of a crowd of 17,248 at Camden Yards.

“I’m apologetic to fans who pay to come and watch the Orioles and watch us lose, in this case, because of me. I’m apologetic to teammates for the inability to help them win a game in four starts. I’m apologetic to Jorge [Posada] if he is to miss any time for yanking a pitch and hitting him.”

Also, my colleague at Yankees.com Bryan Hoch tells me Posada’s plunking was still a topic of pregame discussion for Joe Girardi. Girardi had some words about Guthrie’s inability to command the inside pitch following last night’s game. Since the start of 2008, Guthrie has hit 17 batters, nine have been Yankees. And that’s not including the pitch that Guthrie hit Mark Teixeira with in Spring Training.

This will be in tonight’s game story as well, but wanted to make sure it didn’t get bypassed. Yankees manager Joe Girardi was not happy about Jeremy Guthrie hitting Jorge Posada in the right knee in the second innings of Wednesday’s game. Guthrie also hit Mark Teixeira in the right elbow in a Spring Training game on March 29, and combined with Posada’s plunking, it was enough to prompt some choice words.

“I really don’t think you’re trying to lead off an inning by hitting a guy. I don’t think he’s doing it on purpose, but he hits a lot of people. It’s frustrating for us,” Girardi said. We know he’s going to pitch inside and I don’t have a problem with pitching inside. But what do you expect, me to be happy our guys are getting plunked? I’m frustrated by it. I wish he had better command. “

“I like our guys to pitch inside, but when our guys are getting plunked, I’m not going to be happy about it. We don’t have Posada probably (Thursday), and we missed Tex for a few days in Spring Training. If it was during the season, we would have lost Tex for three or four days. I’m not criticizing Jeremy Guthrie, I’m just saying I’m frustrated by it.”

Posada told reporters he didn’t think it was a DL scenario and Guthrie apologized for the pitch, which was unintentional.

“I’m apologetic for the fact that if he were to miss some time, that would be a shame that it was a pitch that got away from me that had that result,” Guthrie said. “But ultimately, I’m going out there and trying to compete. I don’t ever want to give up free baserunners because I can’t afford those as we’ve seen throughout my career.”

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